seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Taiwan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from China
seen from Italy
seen from United States
Is your wild west AU fic gonna be violentine centric? Because thats the only pairing tag
yes, and its going to be a painfully slow burn one ;)
i apologize for the behalf of clouis peeps. im an artistic lesbian and i have a habit on making ambitious stories about my favorite pairs to feed the gays </3
2019 Query Wishlist
Since I’m about to re-open to submissions next week, I thought now would be a good time to update my manuscript wishlist!
Generally, I represent adult and young adult science fiction and fantasy, including all tangentially related subgenres. I'm also seeking contemporary YA if it has a geeky angle; historical if it has a bit of magic; horror if it crosses over with another genre; SFF romance if it is queer; and a small amount of middle grade and nonfiction.
I want to see diversity of all kinds, including (but not limited to) race, gender, sexuality, and ability, in both characters and worldbuilding; and I am actively looking to represent authors from marginalized groups, even if your work is not #ownvoices. Most of all, I want strong, unique voices and engaging characters, and stories that speak to the world around us.
I would love to add more Young Adult to my list, but voice is the most common barrier, especially with first-person POV. Please really hone that prose! I would love a snappy YA historical mystery (especially with magic thrown in)--like a YA version of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries or Kate McIntyre’s Faraday Files. I always love heists and found families, and I'd love to find a really good geeky queer romcom. On the flip side, portal fantasy and dystopian are a very hard sell for me.
I would especially love to see more range in how YA talks about romance and relationships by showing teen romances that aren’t all monogamous HEAs. Statistically, most people don’t marry their high school sweetheart, but it sure feels that way in YA! Show me teens dating around, power couples breaking up but staying friends, or romantic relationships evolving into something different. Hit me with those found families, with those poly relationships, with those ace brain-crushes.
In Middle Grade I would also like to see stronger voices--I do like quirky, but cartoonish humor is probably not a good fit for me. Frances Hardinge's FLY BY NIGHT is a good example of a wonderfully quirky but elevated MG fantasy. I also love darker MG or antihero characters, such as Nathaniel in the Bartimaeus trilogy, or Artemis Fowl.
For Adult, I want space operas and near-future science-fiction, but I am not the best person for hard sci-fi or military SF. For fantasy I will take pretty much everything, so long as it diverges from the beaten path in execution. I particularly love heists, found families, and strong worldbuilding. I'm a sucker for court intrigue, and would love to see projects like the Daevabad trilogy, or Game of Thrones without all the sexual assault.
Horror only works for me if it is crossed over with another genre, such as the sci-fi trappings of THE LUMINOUS DEAD. I’m looking for innovative settings and concepts--I’m tired of the haunted middle-America small town. I particularly love horror that leans towards psychological thriller, but please don't send me any horror set in a psychiatric hospital.
I'm dipping my toes into Romance, but at the moment I'm only seeking queer stories with a heavy science fiction or fantasy connection. Historical also works, as long as it has some element of fantasy or magic, however small. I love stories that embrace--or dismantle!--popular tropes. Antagonists-to-lovers, fake relationships, and secret identities are a few of my favorites.
I’d love to add some adult or YA Graphic Novels to my list! An author-illustrator package is preferred but not required. Genres are similar to those described above--any setting works, but some sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or other speculative fiction element is more likely to be a fit for me than straight contemporary. As always, I’m seeking diverse representation of all types.
In Nonfiction, I'm looking for prescriptive or entertaining geeky projects (craft books, companion guides, gift books, humor), and compelling, well-written narrative nonfiction in the categories of science, history, pop culture, and women's issues. I am no longer accepting memoir submissions.
Please do not send:
picture books
commercial crime or thrillers, unless they are SFF
military fiction
Christian fiction
sports books
screenplays
stories that feature graphic sexual assault or suicide
If any of this sounds like a good fit for your work, make sure to watch this space! I will re-open to queries on Monday, July 29th, and you will be able to submit manuscripts to me here: http://queryme.online/cmcdonald/
Question for Agent: I know that it's possible that this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it on your blog. How dark is the bootie? Or is it truly a 'booty'? Is it black, a zesty licorice? Or merley a dark charcoal? Or is it not 'dark' as in color, so much as 'dark' as the deep well of dissapointment that sits in your chest as you stare up at the stars and curse that we don't have flying cars and malls on the moon? Or 'dark' like the chasm of the eventual heat death of the universe?
It’s dark enough that I curse my inability to see the stars without a city-wide power outage, and dark enough in its well that the liquid is a fine refreshment for days where I’m lesser than the dry soil of the earth.
But also it’s a pretty nice charcoal color that matches everything I own.
I keep getting the same rejection from agents. They either say my plot or writing was good but they didn’t connect enough or are not passionate enough to take it on. Is this agent speak for my book is boring or do you think this just means I haven’t found the right person yet?
There’s always the chance that your book just hasn’t found the right agent yet! I can’t stress enough how often that turns out to be the case. That said, if you are seeing similar responses from many agents, it never hurts your chances to revise to address those issues. In this case, lacking other details, I suspect it may be the voice. When I love a pitch but didn’t connect with the pages and there’s no specific problem that jumps out, often the voice simply wasn’t strong enough to grab me.
Voice is one of the hardest elements to discuss because it is extremely personal and subjective. (Every part of writing is extremely personal and subjective, but voice is especially so.) Agents are looking for “strong” voices, which means a voice that has personality–a prose style that adds to the story as much as the plot and characters do. It is a way of conveying the emotional tone of your book, the genre or the period. We want it to feel unique, we want the language to wrap us up and transport us into the fictional world. I like a voice that feels so real that when I finish reading, I unintentionally start speaking in its cadence.
It’s difficult to give specific pointers on how to improve your narrative voice, other than to say: read. Read a lot. Read voicy books and pay attention to vocabulary, syntax, levels of formality. Figure out what you do and don’t like, and what does and doesn’t work for the genre of your book. Try to pinpoint how the language affects you, and why, and how you could replicate it differently. Remember that strong voice is not the same thing as overwrought or verbose prose, but experiment and decide for yourself what feels right.
When querying a novel with LGBTQ characters whose LGBTQ identity isn’t central to the story, should one mention the fact in query letters to agents interested in seeing LGBTQ characters?
Yes, if they are central characters. LGBTQ+ readers deserve to see ourselves reflected in stories of all types, not just stories focused on our identity. I can’t speak for all agents, but personally I really appreciate receiving queries like that!
Hi Caitlin! When querying, should the first 20 pp be double-spaced? Thank you!
Standard practice is for manuscripts to be double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman. Of course, most submission formats will require copy-pasting the text into boxes that may strip out that double-spacing, but the point is for everyone to submit approximately the same amount of text. And anyway, you want your document to be correctly formatted for that eventual full request!
Hi guys, I will be getting to my backlog of asks soon, but just a gentle reminder to please not send me queries or follow up on queries via my askbox. You should have received an auto-response when you queried me that allows you to send follow-up messages, and keeps them all organized and in one place for me. Tumblr asks are for advice questions that I can share with the community, not for querying!
